LA teachers are on strike and the Women’s Marchers support the strike!   Hallelujah…  Somewhere along the conversation they missed the recent report that LA County is spending $1.5 billion on illegal immigrants, the same illegal immigrants that LA voted to support, the same illegal immigrants that the Women’s Marchers support!   But they want money.  Gimme more money. 

California as a whole is now spending roughly $30.3 billion per year for illegal immigrants, representing over 17% of the state’s budget.   That is about par with LA’s entire annual budget.

But not to worry, all government employees, including teachers, in LA have a benefit package that surpasses imagination:   medical coverage, dental coverage, group life insurance, AD&D insurance, health care spending accounts, long term disability and subsidized dependent care accounts.   Poor babies. But that’s not all.   They boast ‘generous maternity and family leave’, flexible work schedules, lactation support, and of course the ever burgeoning – retirement package.

The BASE salary for LA County teachers now stands at a starting range of $55,667 to $73,609.  As of 2015, an LA ad for a Superintendent offered a salary range of $267,788 to $310,817 – as BASE requiring a Masters Degree.

As of 2014-2015, Los Angeles had one of the highest cost per students for all of California $11,751, on par with Malibu.

So where does all the money go?

The California Pension Fund announced in 2016 that it had roughly 68cents available for every dollar liability.   State governments are borrowing against current teacher’s pensions to fund retirees.  In the real world of business it is called a Ponzi Scheme.   And it is highly illegal.

So where is the ‘more money’ supposed to come from?  Gimme, gimme, gimme.

Charter schools receive roughly $3000 – $4500 less per child.  Homeschooling costs roughly $500-$1000 per child per year.  States are now paying $9000 to $20,000 per year for public education per child… more than in-state college.

So what did Governor Newsome decide to do about California’s incredible spending crisis?   Why he is spending more money on immigration, more money on child care credits, more money on kindergarten, more money on higher education, and a pledge of $3 billion to offset the $72 billion shortfall of funds that CalSTrs doesn’t have to pay – pensions.  CalsTrs Pension Fund currently sits at $215 billion and that ain’t enough.

Where exactly is all the money going to come from?

Governor Newsome announced that the California General Fund had a surplus of nearly $65 billion from Bond Funds and that he would allocate $80.7 billion for 2019 to public education which would amount to an increase of $5,000 per student!   Really?  Then why are the teachers striking?

If California is so revenue rich why does it continue to demand $368 billion per year from the Federal government?   Those funds are spent on California’s free-speech public Universities, California’s Medicaid, Social Security Benefits, and California’s Medi-Cal which supports illegal immigrants.   Other than Social Security, I want my money back.

The LA Union for teachers is asking for a 6.5% raise, smaller class sizes, reduction in standardized testing, more support staff, and more infrastructure spending.  Newsome offered a compromise which included a 6% raise and his 2019 budget already included infrastructure spending.  It was rejected.   This is the Nancy Pelosi negotiating team.

Perhaps the way to achieve such spending increases would be to shut down pension plans and institute the same caps and math analytics as Social Security Benefits.

Pensions for teachers were originally created to offset the fact that their salaries were significantly lower than the average employee.  Obviously, that fact has long ago dissolved.

LA teachers are above par, more than double, in their earnings when compared to the median income of the LA county household earnings of $55,909.  Factor in their benefits and pensions, and they dwarf the average worker.  If Obama’s redistribution of wealth were to occur, LA teachers would be stripped of pensions, benefits, and half their salaries…in order to equal their non-government peers.

But then equality is only for everyone else to ante up.